1949 Manchester BEA Douglas DC-3 accident
![]() The British European Airways Douglas Dakota involved in the crash, at Manchester Airport in August 1949. | |
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | 19 August 1949 |
Summary | Controlled flight into terrain caused by navigational and pilot errors. |
Site | Saddleworth Moor, Lancashire, England |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
Operator | British European Airways |
Registration | G-AHCY |
Flight origin | Nutts Corner Airport, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Destination | Manchester Airport, England |
Passengers | 29 |
Crew | 3 |
Fatalities | 24 |
Injuries | 8 |
Survivors | 8 |
The 1949 Manchester BEA Douglas DC-3 accident occurred when a twin-engined British European Airways Douglas DC-3 (registration: G-AHCY) crashed on Saddleworth Moor in the Pennines near Oldham, Lancashire, after a flight from Belfast. The accident killed 24 of the passengers and crew on board.[1] The aircraft had first flown in 1944,[1] and was captained by F. W. Pinkerton, a former RAF serviceman who, as a sergeant, had been posted missing during World War II.[2][3] The airline was government-owned.[4]
Accident[]
The aircraft took off from Belfast Nutts Corner Airport at 10:58 on 19 August 1949 on a short-haul flight to Manchester Airport, with twenty-nine passengers and either three or four crew members on board. US newspaper reports, using agency reports filed soon after the incident, favour the former number of crew;[1] Flight Magazine, reporting a little time later, favoured the latter.[3]
An hour after take-off, at 11:59, the last radio contact with the crew occurred and about one minute later the aircraft crashed. It was flying at approximately 1,350 feet (410 m) when it hit a mist-covered hill (53°31.240′N 1°58.733′W / 53.520667°N 1.978883°W) at Wimberry Stones, near to the Chew Valley on Saddleworth Moor near Oldham, 15 miles (24 km) from Manchester Airport. Contact was made approximately 20 feet (6 m) from the summit.[3] The aircraft broke up and caught fire. Twenty-one passengers and all the crew members died, leaving eight survivors.[1][5]
The dead passengers were eleven women, six men and four children, three of whom were aged under two years;[3] the three crew members were all male. All but two of the dead died at the scene.[6] The injured were treated at .[4] The rescue was hampered by bad weather and the remote location of the crash site. Workers from a paper mill approximately 0.75 miles (1.2 km) away formed a human chain to carry the injured from the hillside to lower ground and a doctor at the scene said, "I found bodies scattered all over the place. There were a few survivors lying groaning on the hillside but some of them died before I could attend to them. I have been a doctor since 1914 and served in both wars, but this was the worst sight that I have ever seen."[7] The cause of the accident was an error in navigation, incorrect approach procedure and failure to check the position of the aircraft accurately before the descent from a safe height.[1]
An hour later, a Proctor light aircraft crashed on a test flight in mist at Baildon in Yorkshire, approximately 40 miles (64 km) away. All four of its passengers died.[5][8]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Douglas_Dakota_wreckage_of_undercarriage_-_geograph.org.uk_-_352460.jpg/220px-Douglas_Dakota_wreckage_of_undercarriage_-_geograph.org.uk_-_352460.jpg)
References[]
- ^ a b c d e "Accident Description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ "Roll of Honour – Royal Air Force". Flight. 27 May 1943. p. 567. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
- ^ a b c d "B.E.A. Dakota crash". Flight. 25 August 1949. p. 227. Retrieved 14 February 2011.[dead link]
- ^ a b Associated Press (20 August 1949). "British plane crash kills 24". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ a b Associated Press (19 August 1949). "British plane crashes, 22 persons killed". The Rock Hill Herald. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ Associated Press (20 August 1949). "Plane hits British hill, 21 killed". Schenectady Gazette. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ U.P. (19 August 1949). "27 killed in plane crashes". Greensburg Daily Tribune. pp. 1, 12. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ Associated Press (19 August 1949). "26 Britons perish in 2 plane crashes". The Victoria Advocate. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
Further reading[]
- "Dakota air crash near Oldham". British Pathé. Retrieved 12 February 2011. – short film clip of the scene after the crash
- Aviation accidents and incidents in 1949
- Aviation accidents and incidents in England
- Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas C-47 Skytrain
- British European Airways accidents and incidents
- Disasters in Greater Manchester
- 1940s in Lancashire
- August 1949 events
- Airliner accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom
- 1949 disasters in the United Kingdom